CIA puts on hold all spying operations in Western Europe

The CIA’s European Division has halted its operations in Western Europe in response to several spying scandals in Germany and the continent’s negative reaction to the revelations of spying by the National Security Agency on European leaders and citizens.

The stand-down order has been in effect for two months. It was
designed to give CIA officers time to examine whether they were
being careful enough and to evaluate whether spying on allies is
worth running the risk of discovery, a US official who has been
briefed on the situation told the Associated Press.

Case officers in friendly European countries have largely
forbidden from undertaking "unilateral operations" such
as meeting with sources they have recruited within allied
governments. The continent’s countries have long been used as
safe venues to conduct meetings between CIA officers and sources
from the Middle East and other high priority areas; those
encounters have been rerouted to other locales.

The spying stand-down comes at an inopportune time, AP reported,
citing worries over Western extremists heading to Syria and Iraq
to join with the Islamic State, as well as the standoff with
Russia over influence on Ukraine and the independence movement in
the eastern part of the country. Tensions have grown between the
US and its European allies since Edward Snowden's NSA revelations
in June 2013.

The US and Germany have especially been at odds after the
government whistleblower revealed in October that the NSA had
been spying on
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's calls since 2002.

Another spying scandal in July escalated the growing political
tension between the two countries. It happened when two potential
US
agents were unmasked, suspected of acting as double agents
within the German state security apparatus, and passing secrets
to US intelligence contacts. One of them, a 31-year-old, admitted
he contacted the US embassy and offered ‘cooperation,’ after
which he leaked hundreds of secret documents in exchange for cash
payments. No charges have been filed against the second
man, who has denied working for the Americans In response to
the espionage scandals, Germany promptly expelled the
Berlin CIA chief.

Germany has since admitted tapping former Secretary of State
Hillary
Clinton’s calls, as well as those of the United States’
current top diplomat, John
Kerry. NATO ally Turkey was also a target of German spying.

Turkey, which is part of the CIA’s European Division, is
considered a high priority target - an Islamic country that talks
to US adversaries such as Iran, while sharing a border with Syria
and Iraq. The Eurasian country is also one of the NSA’s top
spying objectives, according to leaked Snowden documents. It
was not known to what extent the stand-down affected operations
in Turkey, AP reported.

It is not the first time the clandestine agency faced blowback
from an ally. In 1996, several of its officers were ordered to
leave France, after an operation to uncover French positions on
world trade talks was unraveled by French authorities because of
poor CIA tactics, according to a secret CIA inspector general
report, details of which were leaked to reporters.

It’s also not the first time the spy group has halted operations
in Europe. A former CIA officer who worked under non-official
cover wrote the 2008 book ‘The Human Factor: Inside the CIA's
Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture’, which detailed several
operational stand-downs on the continent. Those included one in
France in 1998 because of the World Cup soccer championship, and
another in a European country in 2005, in response to unspecified
security threats.

The author, whose nom de plume is Ishmael Jones, was successfully
prosecuted by the CIA for publishing the book without first
submitting it for pre-publication censorship, as he was required
to do under his secrecy agreement.

Though spying stand-downs are common after an operation is
compromised, they are "never this long or this deep,"
said a former CIA official, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because it's illegal to discuss classified material or
activities.

During this pause in activities, CIA operatives will still be
allowed to meet with their counterparts in the host country's
intelligence service, conduct joint operations with host country
services and conduct operations with the approval of the host
government.

The stand-down has ended when it comes to unilateral operations
targeting third country nationals ‒ Russians in France, for
example ‒ which were recently restarted. But most meetings with
sources who are host nationals remain on hold, as do new
recruitments.